May 12 Nintendogs (Pre-E3 2005)

When the first canine was domesticated way back when, do you think that crazy person bringing a wolf into their house knew this is where we were headed? I mean, we have had plenty of tech pets cross our paths over the last several years when people finally realized that a dead fake pet was less sad that a real one. Nintendo is continuing their tradition of unusual games with Nintendogs- possibly the Grand Champion in the tech pets' arena.

Nintendogs (only available right now in Japanese) will be released in the US sometime this year and will allow players to choose their breed of dog using one of three different versions of the game. After choosing the breed, sex, color, and name of your dog, you then have to actually take care of it. This consists of feeding, petting, playing with, and teaching your dog tricks. You can take the dog to competitions where you use previously taught voice commands to try and win. But, the major point of the game is to try and have a happy and healthy pooch.

The game uses the stylus and the microphone to command the dog. For example, when you play fetch with your animal, you will throw the ball with the stylus and then call them back to you by speaking their name into the microphone. Voice commands will work even when other people play with your dog, so no need to worry about a dog sitter being able to get your dog to behave. The intricacies of taking care of a dog are well displayed in the game, including cleaning up after the dog on neighborhood walks.

As a dog lover, I really cant wait to try out the US version of Nintendogs. Even though I know that it wont replace my two miniature Dachshunds, I think that it would be fun to have two real ones and a special little one that fits in my pocket. No official release date has been announced yet, but it should be sometime this year that fans can have real control of a dog, for once.